CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
March 15, 2010 | By Maura Dolan
The South Coast Air Quality Management District improperly permitted an oil refinery to implement a new industrial process without an environmental review even though the project might have caused substantially more air pollution, the California Supreme Court unanimously decided Monday. The state high court faulted the air quality district for determining that the project by ConocoPhillips Co. in Wilmington would not significantly hurt the environment. The court said the air district applied the wrong base rate when calculating the effect of the emissions.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
February 2, 2009 | Catherine Ho
A federal district judge will hear arguments today over whether an air-pollution control agency issued invalid emission credits to businesses and public facilities in one of California's most polluted regions.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
June 20, 2008 | Janet Wilson, Times Staff Writer
Dangerous levels of toxic lead were emitted by a Southern California battery recycling facility for months, until regulators ordered the facility to cut production by almost half, officials said. An Exide Technologies facility in Vernon, one of just two such battery recycling facilities west of the Rockies, was emitting lead at levels nearly twice the allowable federal limits from December to April, according to South Coast Air Quality Management District staff.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
April 17, 2008 | Janet Wilson
State health officials are examining records and talking with Riverside County officials about testing done at a well next to a Crestmore Heights cement plant where regulators have discovered high levels of a cancer-causing toxin called hexavalent chromium. Area residents have used the well for drinking water for decades, and officials are now investigating where the residents now obtain their water. "We're taking this very seriously," said Ken August, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Health.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
April 16, 2008 | Janet Wilson, Times Staff Writer
The air above the TXI Riverside Cement Plant was blinding white Tuesday, blocking out the blue sky. For as long as Mary Alfonso, 79, can remember, dust from the factory has been a feature of life on "the Hill" just above it. When she and her husband moved to the neighborhood near the border of Riverside and San Bernardino counties 52 years ago, they joked about its uniqueness because all the roofs were white. "Then my car turned white -- and it started out green!" said Alfonso.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
December 8, 2007 | Marla Cone, Times Staff Writer
In the wake of wildfires that caused unhealthful air from the mountains to the sea, the region's air quality board Friday expanded the monitoring network that allows the public immediate access to local smoke conditions. At a cost of $225,000, the South Coast Air Quality Management District will add four new sites to the existing 14 that continuously report levels of airborne particulates, plus four mobile stations that can be deployed to smoky areas.